Lawrence, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Lawrence, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Lawrence lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Lawrence — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lawrence — the short answer
Lawrence, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 177 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~177
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 6a is Lawrence's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lawrence's 177-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Lawrence's own 30-year record measures about 177 days between 28°F killing freezes — 31 days shorter than Van Buren County's ~208. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Lawrence's ~177-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lawrence
Each reading below is measured for Lawrence itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLawrence runs about 177 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLawrence sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Lawrence is in
Lawrence sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lawrence's own centroid rather than borrowed from Van Buren County.
What Grows in Lawrence
Every plant below cleared Lawrence's own zone 6a and its 177-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lawrence?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Lawrence
Spotted lanternfly documented 26 miles from Lawrence, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lawrence
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lawrence. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- David NicholasUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Van Buren County Road CommissionUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Armaan Inc/Paul's Gas & LiquorUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Lawrence Public SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Richardson Oil LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- RICHARDSON OIL COMPANYBrownfields · 1900 ft
- Van Buren IsdUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- ELIASON CORPToxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- Lawson Self Serve-LawrenceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- LAWSON OIL COMPANYBrownfields · 2200 ft
- Village Of LawrenceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Alltel Michigan IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lawrence's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Lawrence.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lawrence
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lawrence
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lawrence, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Lawrence. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Lawrence
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lawrence average
Your land is one point inside Lawrence
Everything above resolves to Lawrence as a whole — and this is a town whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Lawrence Average
Lawrence Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Lawrence
- ●One soil character for all of Lawrence
- ●Frost dates read at Lawrence's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lawrence's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lawrence
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lawrence, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lawrence averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lawrence — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lawrence average
How we know this about Lawrence
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Lawrence’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Lawrence
When does frost risk typically end in Lawrence?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lawrence typically lands around Apr 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about May 18.
When is the first frost in Lawrence?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lawrence typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 177 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lawrence?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lawrence sees about 177 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Oct 7, about 142 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lawrence?
The federal record around Lawrence is a meaningful one — 301 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (165), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Lawrence?
From about Sep 21 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lawrence's scale — its 6a band and its 177-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lawrence's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Lawrence’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lawrence's own scale — its own ~177-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,140 acres it covers and 301 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lawrence's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lawrence's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 21 and the ~177-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 301 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lawrence, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lawrence's boundary and the 1,140 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~177-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lawrence's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Lawrencelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lawrence's 1,140 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Van Buren County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Van Buren County
- The growing challenges every Michigan grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Michigan
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Van Buren County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lawrence's 1,140 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lawrence you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,140 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Lawrence-wide figureread your own land →
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